How Can You Avoid Scams?

There are many scams out there to work from home. This means that the job is made up. This typically happens through fake websites or emails.

A lot of the time, scams require you to provide personal information and even money before getting the job. They will use your information or take your money and run!

Anytime that a job seems too good to be true, it probably is! Many people associate most work-from-home opportunities as scams because there are a lot of them out here. Adding to that fact, several years ago, the phrase work-from-home job was designated by the FBI and the BBB as the most common scam phrase. They recommend looking for telecommuting jobs, remote jobs, distributed teams, and even virtual jobs.

No matter what type of job you are looking for, here are some tips to help you avoid scams.

Always remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! You should always trust your gut. Nobody is going to pay you a lot of money to do simple tasks like stuffing envelopes. If you are weary, continue looking.

Keep an eye out for fake websites. If the company gives you a website to look into, it should match their career or job page. Scammers are notorious for creating fake job pages.

Look at the email address too. Most businesses have email addresses with their business name in them, such as [email protected]. This may be a sign of a fake business, though this is not always true. Just be careful if you notice this.

Remember that real employers will never ask for personal details until after you have gotten a job. If they want your social security number or any other personal piece of information, they might be a scam. While they will need this information to pay you, you shouldn’t have to give them this information before you get the job!

Also, if you can get a job without a resume or interview, it is probably a scam. You always should have to prove that you can do the job before you get one. Even if you freelance, they are going to want to know that you have the skills to do the job.

When looking through ads, be particular about the ones that you apply to. You should skip over ads that are vague. You also don’t want to apply for any jobs that have spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. If they use all capital letters, they may be a scam too.

You should never have to pay for the promise of a job. Some scams want you to pay them money so that you can get a paycheck in the future. That is how they make money, but you will never see a dime from them.

This can be tricky because many ask for money for training materials, certification, or other expenses. The only time that you should have to pay an up-front cost is for direct sales companies where you buy a kit with business supplies and samples of the products that you are going to sell.

Make sure that you can actually talk to a person. Most websites that are scams are filled with promises that are too good to be true. However, it may be hard to find someone to talk to.

If you can talk to someone about a job, you can talk about the good and bad parts of the job. This should make it easier to determine if it is a real job!

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This is an excerpt from my e-book, Your Questions Answered: Top Questions About Working From Home, which is available on Amazon and wherever you buy your e-books.

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Previously published on Medium and/or Newsbreak.